Dida Introduces Beeper System To Track Non-emergency Problems

May 05, 1988|by JOANNA PONCAVAGE, The Morning Call

Starting June 1, property owners and tenants in Allentown's Downtown Improvement District will be able to summon assistance for non-emergencies through a new beeper-page system described as unique in the United States.

The system could be used for situations such as a person asleep in a store's furniture department, a youngster causing trouble on a skateboard, or a suspicious car.

COMMNET was described yesterday by T. Anthony Iannelli, executive director of the Downtown Improvement District Authority.

It will allow up to 1,000 participants direct communicationwith security: four full-time Allentown police officers and three part-time Allentown officers paid by the district.

And if a person "exhibits inappropriate behavior," said the Rev. Bill Seamans, director of the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, the system also can summon a staff member from Daybreak, a drop-in center at 36 S. 8th St.

"Chances are they will know the person," he said.

"We'd like to put the personal touch on being able to help, said Marlene Merz, director of Daybreak.

The system, subsidized by Lehigh Valley Page, will be in place for a 90- day trial period.

It will consist of 10 beepers and a telephone number to allow participants to send a 15-second message (name, location and problem) to security personnel and Daybreak.

It will not replace the 911 emergency system. "Those calls should continue to be made," said Assistant Police Chief Gerald M. Monahan. But the new system will get tenants and owners in the district a little closer to a security officer, he said.

"Someone with a minor problem may be reluctant to call because they don't want to bother police," said Monahan. "We are telling them, 'We want to be bothered.' "

Therefore, a merchant may call just because he hasn't seen a police officer all day, or a corporation may announce that a burglar alarm system is temporarily out of service.

Watson Skinner, Allentown City Council president, said the idea for the system was borrowed from other cities such as Hartford, Conn., and Boston. "But there is enough of Allentown in this that we can label it unique and ours." Other cities don't have direct communication between caller and receiver.

He alluded to three other phases that may by implemented in the future with corporate, retail or public aspects.

The trial period will be used to educate participants and monitor calls. After 90 days, the system will be reviewed by an analysis committee chaired by Blair Stuart, vice president and director of security and safety for Merchants Bank.

Also on the analysis committee will be Greg Hatfield of Colonial Parking, and others who described the system yesterday.

Annual projected costs would be about $6,000 per year, said Iannelli, paid out of DID's security budget. The decision to continue will be made by the DIDA board.

The impetus for COMMNET came from Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.

"We got together with DIDA and several other chief executive officers from up and down the mall," said Bert Daday, PP&L spokesman.